


Inglorious

by ununoriginal



Category: Kanjani8 (Band), NewS (Band)
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-24
Updated: 2009-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-14 23:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ununoriginal/pseuds/ununoriginal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How the 'O-gata-sannin' went about making their unit song. Ryo, Ohkura, Subaru, with guest appearances from Yoko, Yasu & Shige.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inglorious

“Okay!  That's _great_ , guys!  We're finally making some progress here – I can tell this is going to be _fantastic_.”    
  
The director slams shut his notebook decisively, and with a little relief as well, to the observant eye of his asssistant.    
  
“Thanks for your input, the team will be able to work something out now and we'll get you guys to come in and start filming once you've recorded the song, yeah?  The lyrics and demo tape should get to you by the end of the week.”    
  
Gathering his things, he stands up and bows slightly.  “Once again, thank you, and the staff and I look forward to making a really cool PV with you.”  
  
The meeting room empties as other staff members also trickle out and Ryo's disappeared with the deluge exiting the door.  Subaru lingers a little, digging through his bag to unearth the pouch where he's stuffed his mints.  Ohkura's eyes are upon him, and Subaru wonders if Ohkura wants to tell him something.  He finds his sweets and offers one to Ohkura, who declines, shaking his head with a slightly preoccupied expression.  
  
Shrugging, Subaru pops one of the mints into his mouth and pushes the pouch back into the left bottom corner of his bag, zipping it closed and getting up to leave.  If Ohkura had something to say, he should just say it – Subaru isn't going to probe, everyone knows he isn't capable of mothering anyone.  
  
“Bye, Ohkura,” he mutters on his way out.  
  
“Oh, yeah, bye, Subaru-kun,” comes Ohkura's slightly delayed response, but the door's already swung shut after Subaru.  
  
 Ohkura sits quietly for a few moments longer.  _Maybe... I should have told Director-san that English isn't exactly the best idea?_  
  
*  
  
“Hah, I think you kind of should have,” Yoko tells him over lunch as he starts peeling his banana.  
  
Ohkura looks up from his katsu-don.  “But deyed all luf--”  He swallows and tries again.  “But they'd all left by then.”  He sounds remarkably accepting and fatalistic, which Yoko correctly deduces is probably how he ended up in this predicament.  
  
“Oh well, all the best, ne?” Yoko replies consolingly.  “At least Ryo-chan and Subaru aren't that good either.”  
  
Ohkura merely grunts and continues feeding himself, eyeing the piece of paper covered with romaji and the accompanying katakana pronunciation guide that's lying next to the bowl.  
  
Yoko snickers and leaves his extra banana with Ohkura as encouragement.  
  
*  
  
“Yeah, it's going to be like torn 2... or should that be torn 3?”    
  
Subaru ponders the semantics with a perfectly straight face while Yasu's fingers catch on his guitar strings, creating a discordant jangle.    
  
“Eh??  Really?!”  Then he catches the flash of mischief in Subaru's eyes and grins.  “Though Shibuyan could probably pull it off ne, you'd be totally sexy if you wanted to.”  
  
Subaru grimaces and changes the subject.  “How's your song coming along?”  
  
Yasu smiles and strums a few bars of upbeat music before abruptly cutting it off.  “And that's all you get to hear until it's done, since it's supposed to be a surprise.”  
  
Subaru's eyes are closed as he hums the melody in his head.    
  
“I can feel the two of you in it.”    
  
He imagines Yasu driving to work, wandering in and out of the shops he frequents, sitting cross-legged on his bed hugging his guitar deep in the night, his mind filled with Yoko and the song they would create together.  Silently, he shifts a little closer to Yasu.  
  
“Yokocho says it would have been nice if you'd been in our group too – it would be like Sankyoudai all over again.”  
  
Subaru perks up a bit.  “He said that?”  
  
Yasu nods.  “Yes, I think he feels the pressure because he's not so comfortable with taking such an active role in making decisions on the music.”    
  
“I think I can understand how he feels.”    
  
Subaru recalls the day his own unit had their first meeting and Ohkura, Ryo and he had more or less faced each other across the table in silence until the director had given up and started offering his own suggestions.  It wasn't that he didn't have any interesting ideas, but it had seemed too hard to express them, without the familiar presence of Yasu to back them up and bring them one step further, or barring that, Maru's enthusiasm, or Yoko and Hina's unwavering faith.  He'd felt out of his depth, a hundred thoughts floating through his mind but none of them settling.  
  
“We're all probably feeling a little out of our comfort zone,” Yasu says reassuringly.  “But sometimes the change in chemistry can lead you down unexpected paths.”  
  
Subaru mulls over Yasu's words.  
  
“Unexpected is probably right,” he concedes.  
  
Then Yasu asks for Subaru's opinion on his own solo, and Subaru gets drawn away, leaving thoughts of English lyrics and pregnant silences around meeting room tables for another day.  
  
*  
  
“How do you pronounce this word again?” Ryo jabs at the paper while nudging Shige with his elbow.  
  
Shige looks up from the textbook page which he's colouring luminous green, pushing up his reading glasses in that inexplicably cute (to Ryo) way of his.  
  
“Where?”  
  
Ryo points again.  
  
“ _No-to-ri-a-su_ ,” Shige carefully enunciates.  “But you have to say the last part quickly.”  
  
Ryo tries it out a couple of times.  
  
“It doesn't really sound like how Jin said it though,” he says dubiously.  
  
“Then it's just too bad that Akanishi-kun isn't here with his American to help you,” Shige replies indifferently as he returns to his studying.  
  
Ryo stares at Shige a little suspiciously, sensing a possible insult in there somewhere but unable to tell what it is, but Shige's already buried in his text.  He shrugs and reads out the entire verse to himself under his breath.    
  
“So what does this whole line mean?”    
  
His elbow digs against Shige's arm once more, and with a long-suffering sigh, Shige closes his textbook and sets it aside.    
  
“Oh, just give it here.”  Impatiently plucking the sheet from Ryo's hand, he starts reading out the words, scribbling the meanings above them while Ryo looks on semi-smugly.    
  
“What's wrong with just memorising it anyway?  Isn't that what you usually do when you're pressed for time?” Shige asks as he takes out his electronic dictionary to double-check his translations.    
  
“I want to be sure we're not going to be singing something really ridiculous.”  
  
“Couldn't you have done that during the meetings?  That's another thing that puzzles me – why are you singing in English, especially when the three of you have never shown any particular interest in it whatsover?”  
  
Shige pauses in his writing to glance up at Ryo when the expected reply doesn't happen.  Ryo has that blank expression on his face that means he's thinking really hard.  
  
“...I don't really remember anymore,” he finally admits after Shige's done waiting for his answer and has returned to his temporary assignment instead.  
  
“You don't?”  Shige's tone is rather disbelieving.  
  
“I was in the 'zone' for a bit,” Ryo says, referring to his ability to catnap perfectly with his eyes wide open, a talent essential to his survival as one of the most popular members in two very popular idol groups – sometimes he could even provide some semblance of an answer, making the illusion of attention even more convincing.  “Then the director was ending the meeting saying everything was going to be fantastic.”    
  
He thinks he left pretty soon after that, without talking to either Ohkura or Subaru, because he had the Shinkansen to catch back to Tokyo.  He'd figured that the other two would put up some objection if the discussion hadn't been going in the 'right' direction, but he'd forgotten that his new unit members, the remaining two-thirds of the 'O-gata-sannin', were more prone to passive acceptance and subsequent self-pity than pro-active disagreement.  
  
Shige stares at Ryo with slight fascination.  “This must be the downside to evolution,” he mutters to himself, trying to hold in the grin threatening to break across his face.  
  
“What's so funny?”  Ryo wants to know, but Shige diverts his attention back to the translated song.    
  
“The song's perfectly fine, Nishikido-kun.  In fact, I'm sure you'll be very cool singing it,” he declares confidently as he hands the paper back to Ryo.  
  
Ryo mumbles his thanks, and tries to focus his concentration again upon memorising the lyrics, hoping this isn't one of the rare times when Shige gets it wrong.  
  
*  
  
“Quickly!  Now!  Film them now!”  
  
The cameraman snaps out of his near-dozing state, fumbling for the 'record' button on the video-camera when the AD suddenly begins frantically slapping his forearm.  The scene blurs into focus on the three quietest members of Eito engaged in a reasonably lively discussion over their respective roles in the PV.  
  
At the moment, Ryo's sort of whining, balking at the prospect of having to film a bedroom scene, with Subaru pragmatically countering his arguments.    
  
Ohkura's happily observing them wordlessly, having put in his two cents earlier and gotten dibs on the kitchen, which, naturally, just has to be his area.  He begins to daydream about the possibility of consuming the props once they've finished with his scenes.  
  
Subaru wins the debate when he demands they all imagine him being the one in the bedroom, and the people around the table dissolve into laughter.  It's agreed that Subaru gets the living room, and he  moves on to the next point on their agenda, eager to share some of the ideas he has on how they could perform the song during their concerts.  
  
Ryo circles ' _bedroom_ ' on his own notes with good-natured resignation – he had a feeling this would be the outcome when their director had first shown them the storyboards, but this time, he knows what he's getting into.  
  
In the background, the AD avidly watches their animated interaction, just glad that he finally has some decent footage that can be put into the 'Making Of' segment of the album's bonus DVD.


End file.
